The Iounic Calendar in Vor'anna | World Anvil
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The Iounic Calendar

"The times of the Dawn War, when gods and goddesses walked as mortals shall be the First Age, the beginning of our time. The Age of Antiquity from whence our legends come shall be known as the Second Age. The Third Age will be that Bloodied Epoch that we have survived, a time of terrible strife and agony. And in this Reformation we shall from now on live in the Fourth Age. Let there never be a Fifth, as we may not survive another time of war and heartbreak like we have seen come before."   High Expositor Ghalis Mirlain, a Pillar of Ioun and a historian credited with the creation of the modern calendar   ********

Introduction

  Before the creation of the Iounic Calendar in the Zero Year, calendars were kept and maintained by individual kingdoms, tribes, churches, cults, and more. The management and recording of time was confusing and without any semblance of order. This made the study of the history of war, politics, magic, and religion an ardous and nearly impossible task. As the period of time we now refer to as the Third Age, or its more colorful name the "Bloodied Epoch", drew to a close the remaining powers of the multiverse looked to forge new bonds in uniting the various entities of the multiverse in whatever means were possible, to avoid another period of rampant destruction and loss like the multiverse had just seen.   It was the work of Ghalis Mirlain, an earth genasi woman and cleric of Ioun, that revolutionized Vor'anna and is one of the key factors that aided in bringing the multiverse together. High Expositor Mirlain hoped she could encourage cross-national, cross-religious, and cross-planar relationships in academia and politics by undertaking a project that would make it easier to study the passage of time, and to record events, in a more unified manner.      High Expositor Mirlain and her acolytes began by collecting and categorizing each and every calendar in the entirety of the multiverse that they could find. They then took these calendars, and cross referencing them, created a master calendar. This calendar, the Iounic Calendar, is the primary (and nearly only) way that time is now recorded in the multiverse. For her work, High Expositor Mirlain was granted the title "Pillar of Ioun", an honor that only four individuals have earned in known and recorded history and the only one to earn this title in the modern era.  

Days

The Iounic calendar is 360 days long. This is the period of time it takes the Inner Planes to finish a rotation in the Elemental Chaos. When naming the days, High Expositor Mirlain fell back on ancient, druidic principles. She found these to be the most widely used throughout the multiverse, crossing over racial, religious, planar, and national boundaries. The days of the week are as follows:
  • Moonsday
  • Earthsday
  • Windsday
  • Airsday
  • Firesday
  • Starsday
  • Sunsday
This creates a seven day week, which was the most common week length found. Additionally, many arcane spells and enchantments have a period of time for use, or reuse after activation, that lasts seven days. Lastly, the number seven features prominently in many early tales, legends, and myths, hinting towards an importance to this number in the grand cosmology and foundation of the multiverse.

Months

The months of the Iounic Calendar are roughly based around the 45 day cycle of Sehanine's Mirror, the silvered moon of Vor'anna. There are some variations in the length of some months. This is due to brief gravitational effects caused by the second, dark moon, Tharizdun's Ire. High Expositor Mirlain utilized names as found in many draconic calendars, as draconic is a language utilized throughout arcane and academic study. The year begins with the VERNAL EQUINOX. As most of the settled world on the Prime Material Plane encounters Spring, a season of rebirth and new life, during the vernal equinox, the High Expositor believed it was fitting to begingThe months are as follows:  
MONTH DAYS NOTES
DEMIR 46 The first day of the month, and the new year, is the VERNAL EQUINOX
GRIS 44
OROST 47 The first day of the month is the SUMMER SOLSTICE
SKALAR 48
PILTA 42 The first day of the month is the VERNAL EQUINOX
VALL 48
QILL 43 The first day of the month is the WINTER SOLSTICE
MORTEN 42
       

Years

The Iounic calendar starts its record keeping from the Zero Year. This year was the period of time when High Expositor Mirlain and her acolytes were finishing the formulation of the calendar. The Iounic Reformation of Records of History and Time, or the Reformation, is often another name for this year. Events before the Reformation are recorded in a negative fashion (Before Reformation, or B.R.), while dates after the Reformation are recorded in a positive fashion (After Reformation, or A.R.). A larger number for the year then always dictates a further distance from the Reformation itself.  

Ages

One of the difficulties in creating the master Iounic Calendar was recording the various myths and legends. To do so High Expositor Mirlain first categorized them into four categories.   The first category were ancient legends that spoke of the very founding of the multiverse itself, and of the gods themselves. These were few, far between, and often conflicting. These were put into the First Age, the fabled Dawn War. While no official date exists for this age, historians often assume it was between 25,000-100,000 years before the Reformation.   The second category were legends, tales, and myths that often had supporting evidence, be they relics, ruins, or supporting stories from various sources. These often dealt with heroic, or villainous characters, that were powerful but often the champions of, or playthings of, the gods and not gods themselves. These were labeled as the Second Age, and the period of time is often referred to as the Age of Antiquity. This period of time is roughly estimated to be about 10,000-25,000 years before the Reformation.    The third category was known, recorded history. These were events that had countless examples of supporting evidence and were categorically proven as true. Unfortunately, this is because it was a period of time marred by countless wars, chief among them the Dragon Wars, which were one of the main catalysts for High Expositor Mirlain's work. She named this the Third Age, the Bloodied Epoch, and signaled its end by the creation of her calendar.   This left future events to be placed into the Fourth Age. High Expositor Mirlain's hope was that there would be no need for a Fifth Age. Much of her distinction between ages was done by major, cataclysmic multiverse shattering events. Her hope was that the modern era would be an eternal period of piece. That however remains to be seen.  

The Calendar


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